Aploactinidae was first formally recognised as a family by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Edwin Chapin Starks in 1904.

[4] The results of some studies suggest that the velvetfishes into an expanded stonefish clade, the family Synanceiidae because all of these fish have a curved sabre-like lacrimal spine that can project, using a switch-blade-like mechanism, out from underneath their eye.

One species, Prosoproctus pataecus, from the South China Sea, uniquely among scorpaenoids has its anus very far forward, just to the rear of the base of the pelvic fins.

[3] These are small fishes with the largest species being the roughskin scorpionfish (Cocotropus monacanthus) which has a maximum published total length of 13.1 cm (5.2 in).

[10] These fishes are very well camouflaged ambush predators hiding amongst algae or rubble on or in the vicinity of rocky and coral reefs.